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TRB Annual Meeting

Maintenance Planning for Rail Asset Management—Current Practices

This synthesis documents the current state of the practice of transit systems in the area of rail inspection and maintenance. The document strives to give the reader an understanding of the different methods used to identify broken rail defects and the optimal frequency of nondestructive testing in combination with visual track inspection for each given line or line segment. The practical delivery from this synthesis will be information that can help transit organizations make informed decisions about their rail inspection systems and maintenance schedules. A literature review and detailed survey responses from 16 of 28 heavy- and light-rail transit agencies are provided. Detailed case examples of three different systems are also included in the report and provide additional insights on the state of the practice, including lessons learned, challenges, and gaps in information. The results indicate that the occurrence of rail defects, broken rails, and broken rail derailments is consistent with the rate of development found in other studies that look at larger populations of rail defects. Likewise, the larger and more heavily used transit systems develop increased levels of defects, which is again consistent with what is seen in the railroad industry at large. There is no consistency, however, in the use of ultrasonic testing (UT) and other rail testing techniques. Larger transit systems conduct UT testing at higher frequencies. Smaller transit agencies rely more heavily on visual inspection and track circuits, with a minimum level of UT testing. Although track inspectors are often skilled at finding surface defects, they cannot spot internal defects, which represent the highest-risk defect type; such defects often grow to failure with no visible indication until they fracture (break), with the potential to cause a derailment. Thus, as these systems age, and as the rail accumulates more traffic, they are expected to develop greater numbers of internal rail defects that will require a more aggressive UT program to help minimize the occurrence of broken rails. Likewise, reliance on track circuits to identify broken rails is an effective stopgap, but this method offers no insight into the rate of defect initiation, which increases exponentially with the age of the rail. Because simply scheduling more tests is neither cheap nor sound engineering practice, risk-based scheduling is a potential means of determining how much additional testing should be performed—specifically, that which could benefit transit systems through both increased safety and minimized costs. On the basis of the survey results, this synthesis developed suggestions for follow-up studies.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 71p
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01759700
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 9780309673600
  • Report/Paper Numbers: Project J-7, Topic SE-07
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Dec 7 2020 11:32AM